Artist's sculpture raises eyebrows, discussions

This lifelike sculpture of a near naked sleepwalker on the Wellesley campus in Massachusetts has raised a few Facebook comments on the school's art museum's Facebook page. Facebook photo

A lifelike sculpture of a male sleepwalker clad only in his underwear outside the campus of Wellesley College by noted artist and Delavan-Darien High School grad Tony Matelli has aroused some discussion about art, gender and the human body.

The sculpture is part of an exhibit by Matelli for the elite Massachusetts college's Davis Museum, but a story in the Washington Post, notes how the statue has drawn a number of complaints from readers of the museum's Facebook page.

The mixed comments range from the appropriateness of the sculpture on campus to whether the complaints are discriminatory to older and less perfect bodies.

Matelli, whose work is in galleries in Milwaukee, New York and Europe, is noted for his lifelike sculptures and detailed , sometimes startling works, like a sculpture of rotting meat.